Wireless networks, such as Wi-Fi networks, become more and more accepted as a means for communicating with a wide variety of devices. In this regard, wireless networks are in principle also a suitable means for communicating with devices which do not dispose of a user interface, such as, for example, a keypad, for inputting alphanumeric information. Examples of such devices include lighting devices or other technical devices used in building services, sensors for monitoring a certain area or the operation of machines or for monitoring health parameters of human beings or animals, or actuators which are controlled from a remote location.
In order to enable wireless devices to access a wireless network at an access point and exchange information via the network, the devices usually have to be set up accordingly. This process, which is also referred to as provisioning herein, involves storage of the network parameters in the devices. For protected Wi-Fi networks, these network parameters usually include an SSID (Service Set Identifier) identifying the access point and a password or security key protecting the communication between the access point and the wireless devices. In order to be stored in a wireless device, the network parameters are usually entered into the device using a corresponding user interface provided by the device. However, this is not possible for wireless devices of the aforementioned type, which do not dispose of a suitable user interface.
One option for setting up such devices would be to pre-store the network parameters therein when manufacturing the devices. However, this option greatly reduces the flexibility of the wireless devices since it requires knowledge of the network parameters of the access point, to which the wireless device will connect, already at the time of the manufacturing of the wireless devices and would not allow to connect the wireless devices to access points using other network parameters or to change the network parameters of the access point.
A further option described in US 2014/0254477 A1 involves a wireless transmission of network parameters in the form of data packets having a plurality of lengths. Such data packets are transmitted to load control devices communicating with one another via a wireless communication network, and the load control devices decode the access information from the modulated lengths of the data packets. US 2014/0254477 A1 suggests that in such a way log(N−M) bits of the network parameters can be encoded per data packet, if the data packets have a minimum length M and a maximum length N.
By means of the procedure described in US 2014/0254477 A1, it is possible to transmit the network parameters wirelessly to network client devices before these devices can connect to the wireless communication network. However, the data transmission has a reduced reliability when longer data packets having a length up the maximum length supported by the employed wireless communication protocol are used, because such longer data packets may be corrupted more likely than shorter data packets in noisy transmission conditions.